It’s been a while coming, but our open men certainly shone through for Illawarra Blue Stars at the recent State Open/23 titles held at Homebush. I cannot remember any other occasion that the open men have gained top placings in both the 100m and 200m.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Our male sprinters proved their wins and placings in the country 100m and 200m were no fluke and they backed this performance up with some of best male sprinting the club has seen for some time.
Lachlan Parry has been superb thoughout the weekend with a solid 100m to take out 4th in the final in a very good time of 10.73. He was not content with the 100m placing and ran one of his best races in the 200m to take out the silver medal, although he finished 3rd across the line. Lachlan’s placing was moved to 2nd with the Victorian sprinter finishing 1st not eligible to take the title.
What a fabulous performance by this young man and he will now head to the national titles in both events. His time of 21.82 was excellent. Running well also was clubmate Kyle Grubnik who took out 6th in the 100m final in a solid time of 10.78 and he too backed this up by making the final of the 200m and coming in 5th overall and 4th NSW athlete in 21.92 showing the closeness of the event.
Not to be left out, Chris Devery just missed the final of the 100m, but made up for it when he ran 22.37 in the 200m to be placed into the B final. Devery ran superbly to take this B final recording 22.38.
Connor Dymond wasn’t going to allow the “older sprinters” to take all the accolades. Being the youngest in the final of the mens open 110m hurdles, Dymond is on a move and his progression into the open final was a great result. He finished an excellent 6th in the final in a time of 15.16, after he ran a creditable 11.54 in his heat of the open 100m.
Have to feel for female sprinter Stephanie Power. After running a good heat in the open women’s 100m, recording 12.39, Power eased off in the last 20m feeling a slight groin strain. She chose to withdraw from the rest of the competition feeling if she went on any further she may have jeopardised her chances of contesting the nationals in which she has qualified for both the 100m and 200m.
Now heading off to the national titles which are being held this weekend on the newly constructed track for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, our athletes know the competition will be tough. Due to the championships being held as qualifiers for Commonwealth Games selection, every event will be highly contested.
What a result for the club in the recent Country Titles. Last year, the titles held in Dubbo, IBS finished a great second behind the very strong Mingara club on 584 points. This year IBS took the second placing once again with a great score of 755.50 to again finish behind Mingara on 973.50 points and Athletics Wollongong on 706 points with Macquarie Hunter in 4th on 558. This is a tremendous achievement for our club and one that we are so very proud of considering we had a lot of our major contenders sitting on the sidelines with injuries or overseas in another major competition.
At the time of writing our youth are battling it out with the best in the NSW State titles, but pleased to report that newcomer Maya Bos-Woods has taken out the gold medal with a personel best height of 1.60m in the under 15 girls high jump. From reports the girls had to wait an hour before the event commenced due to a storm, but she kept her cool and showed she is a young lady with a lot of potential. Maree Louise-Meier followed up her country title win by taking out 2nd placing in the women’s under 20 discus with both girls qualifying for national championships. At the the time of writing Charlotte Smith has finished in 5th spot in the girls under 14 javelin and Nicholas Horton has finished a great 4th in the men’s under 20 110m hurdles.
